


When I Find Him

by Nochi



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Post-Game, Trespasser DLC, Trespasser Spoilers, alcohol mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 15:16:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7806883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nochi/pseuds/Nochi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the dust settles, Iron Bull finds the Inquisitor trying to cope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When I Find Him

Even with the Inquisition disbanded, Skyhold remained sovereign unto itself. Orlais was pretending it was a gift to the former Inquisitor for cooperating, and not that the fortress wasn’t on any of their property maps. It was also the only concrete home Peri had, until or unless she rejoined her clan in Wycome. 

So when Cassandra expressed concern at her absence, and Leliana remained tight-lipped as to her whereabouts, the Iron Bull quietly walked the grounds of the old castle. Eventually he found the Herald of Andraste on the floor behind the bar in the pub, wine bottle between her knees, trying to pull the cork free with her remaining hand. He just leaned against the doorframe, letting her work at it, silently counting the empty bottles scattered around her. 

Eventually she gave up, letting the bottle drop with a quiet _thud_. “I managed the first three alright,” she said quietly, with not a little slurring. 

“Yeah, funny how most things get a little harder after that.” That got a wobbly snort out of her. “Ironically, that works in reverse.” He sat next to her, considering for a moment, then reached for the bottle. 

“No,” she sighed. “I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t have already.” She tipped her head back against the bar, eyes closed. “S’not great idea for mages to get this drunk. Or Inksitors. Former Insquisitisor.” 

“Anything pops off, I’ll sit on you,” he promised, working the cork free. “I don’t think you’re either of those things right now.”

“Oh really? What am I then?” Her voice was bitter now, as she stared at the ceiling. “What is the Herald of Andraste, the Inquitisistor, Keeper’s First of Clan Lavellan, with her various magnificent titles stripped away?”

“Heartbroken.” He offered her the bottle. After a moment, she reached over with her good arm and took it, raising it to her lips. 

“I hate him.”

“Lotta bad wine for hate. Usually go for whiskey for hate.”

“Maybe I hate whiskey too.”

“That’s fair.” Bull leaned his head back as well, mirroring Peri’s pose. “Wanna talk about it?”

“Yes, that’s why I locked myself in a pub halfway up a mountain in the ass-end of the world.”

Bull didn’t respond. Another long pull on the bottle and she tipped her head back, jaw clenched, trying to stop the tear that slid from the corner of her eye. Wordlessly, he lifted his arm, and she took the invitation readily, curling into him. 

“He’s not evil,” she mumbled. “Be easier if he was evil. Why can’t he be evil.”

“Pretty sure the walking Blight magister tapped us out on evil for a while,” Bull intoned calmly. “From what you said, he just wants to fix what he fucked up. What it did to his - your - people.”

“At the cost of literally everyone and everything else,” she whispered. “Releasing all the old ‘gods’. What could be worth that?”

Hearing what wasn’t said, Bull wrapped his arm around Peri’s shoulders. “He loves you,” he murmured, feeling her curl in on herself at the words. “He wouldn’t have told you _anything_ if he didn’t. Even knowing it might put his plans at risk. That’s powerful, for someone that old. If you’ve got even a thimble of that left in you for him, you’ve got a chance at stopping him.” 

Peri sniffled, not speaking for a while, and when she did, it was low and pained. “Do you remember when I asked you what it was like growing up in the Qun?”

“Yeah.”

“When you said….the day you find out who you’re supposed to be?”

“It’s a good day.”

“Why?”

Trying to catch up with the inebriated jump the conversation had taken, Bull spoke slowly. “You’ve….got your path under your feet. You know where you’re going and what you’re doing, and that if you get lost - “ He paused suddenly, the two topics connecting in his head, and squeezed the former Inquisitor a little tighter. “If you get lost, someone will be there to set you right.” 

Peri nodded against his chest. “It felt like that,” she whispered. “So many times I’d...doubt. I was in so far over my head, but even there at the beginning, he _knew_ \- he knew what to say to put me back.” She sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. “I couldn’t do that for him.” 

“I think he already thinks he’s lost,” Bull murmured. “But he’s been so lost for so long he doesn’t think the path exists anymore.” A pause. “This shit never happens under the Qun. They’d have stuck him in a camp for a couple of days, hit him over the head until he made sense again, and slapped a ‘most improved’ ribbon on his ass on the way out’.”

Another snort from Peri, then, as the image took hold in her mind, giggles, until she shook desperately with them. Bull just smiled at her as she tried to catch her breath. 

“Better?”

“No,” she admitted, sighing. “This wine is awful, and I only have one arm, and my lost, asshole, demigod boyfriend is out there somewhere trying to blow up the world I just saved.” She set the bottle aside with a solid _thunk_. “But I think you just gave me an excellent plan for when I find him.”


End file.
